Point-of-sale (POS) terminals may be used as a processing station for identifying products, determining a price of the products, accumulating a total purchase price for the products, determining a sales tax on the products, receiving a tender of payment for the products, and optionally conducting a redemption and/or payment electronic transaction via a communication network. For example, the POS terminal may be a check-out station in a grocery store. Products in a customer's shopping basket may be read by a bar code scanner coupled to the POS terminal. The POS terminal may identify the prices of each of a plurality of purchase items. The purchase items may comprise apples, hamburger, bread, uncooked rice, a chocolate cake from a grocery bakery, a six-pack of beer, a bottle of fish oil capsules, a women's fashion magazine, and a digital music pre-paid card. The POS terminal may accumulate a list of items purchased, e.g., a list of universal product codes (UPCs), sum the purchase prices, determine a sales tax for the purchase items, and determine a total price for the customer to pay.
The POS terminal may be configured to accept payment for the purchases in a variety of different forms of tender. The purchaser may pay for the purchases with cash. The purchaser may pay for the purchases with cash, a credit card, a debit card, a stored value card, food stamps, WIC tender, other payment vehicles, or a combination thereof. When a purchaser pays for items with some payment vehicles, for example with food stamps and/or with WIC tenders, the POS terminal may desirably distinguish purchase items that may be paid for with these tenders from other purchase items that may be prohibited for purchase with these tenders. For example, it may be that according to locally applicable laws or codes, uncooked rice may be purchased with food stamps and/or WIC tenders, while a women's fashion magazine may not be purchased with food stamps and/or WIC tenders.